Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A man wanted by Interpol for his links to an alleged terrorist organisation has been advising Scotland Yard on countering Muslim extremism, a Times investigation has discovered.

Mohamed Ali Harrath has been the subject of the Interpol red notice since 1992 because of his alleged activities in Tunisia, where he co-founded the Tunisian Islamic Front (FIT). {...}

Tunisia has accused Mr Harrath, the chief executive officer of the Islam Channel in Britain and an adviser to the Scotland Yard Muslim Contact Unit, of seeking help from Osama bin Laden. It says that the FIT wants to establish “an Islamic state by means of armed revolutionary violence”.

Mr Harrath has been convicted in absentia of numerous criminal and terrorism-related offences by Tunisian courts and sentenced to 56 years in prison.

An Interpol red notice is Interpol's highest level of alert, given to a major terrorist or criminal suspect whom countries are urged to arrest and extradite.

Not only that, but Harrath is also wanted in France in connection with FIT terrorist activities.

So..what has Mohamed Ali Harrath been doing with his time in the UK aside from dodging extradition? Acting as a Scotland Yard's chief adviser to its Muslim Contact Unit on Islamic terrorism!

As for his pals in the FIT, Harrath admits helping to set it up, but it's just a “nonviolent political party founded in 1986 to oppose the one-party state in Tunisia”. Kind of like Hezbollah, you know..just a political party.

Except Harrath was quoted by the Times as saying that “revolution is not [necessarily] a dirty word” and “there is nothing wrong or criminal in trying to establish an Islamic state”.

And especially nothing wrong in overthrowing a relatively progressive Arab state that's friendly to the West and replacing it with a jihad supporting Islamic republic, hmmmm?

Apparently the Brits have been covering for this guy and refusing extradition for a while now, but are finally beginning to have second thoughts, especially as this has now gone public. Or, as one government minister out it, "Tunisia today, UK tomorrow.”